Guitar Queer-O

Guitar Queer-o is episode 1113 (#166) of Comedy Central's South Park, which aired on November 7, 2007.^[1] The title and plot parody the video game Guitar Hero.^[2], and the episode aired ten days after the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock in the US. The episode satirizes video games that have become such popular forms of virtual reality that fans increasingly substitute their virtual world for real life. The plot also follows the standard cliché story of the rise, fall, and reuniting of a band.

Plot

Stan and Kyle are obsessed with the video game Guitar Hero. Randy is impressed that the kids enjoy music from his generation, and attempts to impress them by playing "Carry On Wayward Son" on a real Gibson Les Paul guitar and Vaux (parody of Vox) amp. The kids are not impressed, saying that "real guitars are for old people."

Together Stan and Kyle manage to score 100,000 points, and are immediately contacted by a talent agent, reminiscent of Reuben Kincaid from The Partridge Family. They sign a recording contract and attend a "sex and drugs" party with many Colorado celebrities. The record company organizes an event at a local arcade where the two are to score 1,000,000 points to Pretty Vacant in front of a live audience; however, the pair's manager takes Stan aside and tells him that Kyle is holding him back. Stan is told that he should dump his friend in favor of new partner, a kid named Thad Jarvis, who is so good he can play Guitar Hero "acoustically" (meaning that he doesn't need to even plug his guitar controller into a game system to play).

Stan and Thad begin playing together, and when Kyle finds out, the two get into a fight and break up. Stan becomes stressed out by the constant rehearsing of Guitar Hero, and stops by EV Games (a play on EB Games) to buy a new game, to help him "mellow out". The clerk offers him Heroin Hero, a game in which the character does nothing but inject himself with heroin while chasing a dragon that he can never catch. Stan's addiction shortens his temper, and impedes his skill, and Thad loses patience and quits (in a manner similar to James Mattingly in That Thing You Do!, singing "I quit, I quit, I quit" as he leaves). Stan has to perform solo, and is unable to perform, since he had stayed up three days straight playing "Heroin Hero."

Meanwhile, Kyle had taken up a job playing Guitar Hero at a local bowling alley as entertainment for the customers. After his meltdown, Stan seeks out Kyle, and after a brief confrontation admits that he was wrong and that he only enjoyed being a video game rock star when he was doing it with Kyle. Kyle forgives him and the two reunite and attempt to score 1,000,000 points in front of no one but their friends; though first they must kick Randy off their Xbox, as he had taken up Stan's Heroin Hero habit. They score their million points, and the game congratulates them, but rather than tell them they have unlocked "Super-Stardom" as they expected, the game tells them that they have played so much that they are "Fags" (explaining the title of the episode). Stan and Kyle angrily leave, and Cartman and Butters, believing that it had all been a game, start to play, with Butters requesting that he "be the one to betray Cartman after the sex and drugs party."

Featured songs

These songs are either played or referenced during the episode, and most have appeared in the real Guitar Hero series.

File:Guitar-Her-South-Park.jpg

Stan and Kyle attempt to break 100,000 points in Guitar Hero.

References

^ Episode Guide. South Park Studios
^ Comedy Central press release

Template:Episode navigation

[1] Episode Guide. South Park Studios

[2] Comedy Central press release

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